O'Connor and Quinn seek state's No. 2 job

Topinka to run for a 3rd term as treasurer

December 10, 2001|By Rick Pearson and James Janega, Tribune staff reporters. Tribune staff reporters William Grady and Kevin Lynch contributed to this report.

More ballot choices in the March primary emerged Sunday as two candidates announced for lieutenant governor, the state treasurer announced she'll seek an unprecedented third term and a new contender declared for a congressional seat on the Northwest Side.

State Rep. William O'Connor of Riverside joined Republican gubernatorial candidate Corinne Wood as her choice for lieutenant governor. On the Democratic side, former state Treasurer Patrick Quinn opted to seek the nod for lieutenant governor rather than run for governor.

Incumbent Republican Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka launched her bid for a third term. And former Clinton White House aide Pete Dagher joined the Democratic field for the 5th Congressional District.

The jockeying for the ballot came on the eve of Monday's opening of the week-long period for filing candidacy petitions with the State Board of Elections in Springfield.

O'Connor, 52, a moderate third-year lawmaker with an extensive state government background, said he supports calls by Wood and some leading Republicans to make the party more inclusive.

"We must open the doors of the big tent of our party to let those in who have been shut out," he said. He delivered a portion of his candidacy announcement in Spanish.

O'Connor said he had been solicited as a possible running mate for Atty. Gen. Jim Ryan, a more conservative Republican candidate for governor, early in the campaign. But he said Ryan's recent choice of state Sen. Carl Hawkinson of Galesburg made him realize that Ryan "had a very different view of where the party should go."

Wood and O'Connor support abortion rights, and Ryan and Hawkinson oppose abortion. A third candidate in the race, conservative state Sen. Patrick O'Malley of Palos Park, also opposes abortion. An aide said it is unlikely O'Malley would select a running mate for the primary.

"I've never formally endorsed Jim Ryan, and if there's a letter or something, I'd love to see it," he said. "All I did was have conversations with them about a possible candidacy for lieutenant governor. I was and am very interested in that candidacy. But I don't think they can produce for you any form of endorsement."

But in a September interview in the State Journal-Register of Springfield, O'Connor said he supported Ryan for governor and said his own abortion-rights stance would add balance to the attorney general's opposition to the procedure.

Ryan spokesman Dan Curry said O'Connor had "pledged his full support" to Jim Ryan in a face-to-face meeting with the attorney general before Wood entered the race and had since restated his backing to top Ryan campaign aides.

Curry said O'Connor made no effort to remove himself from the endorsement list.

"We are surprised that Rep. O'Connor would switch his allegiance," Curry said. "When he endorsed Jim Ryan's candidacy for governor, we thought he was sincere."

Among Democrats, Quinn's decision to run for lieutenant governor reduced a crowded field seeking the party's nomination for governor to four: Michael Bakalis, U.S. Rep. Rod Blagojevich (D-Ill.), Roland Burris and Paul Vallas.

"I think it is a very good office to champion the interests of people who don't have big-time lobbyists and connections," Quinn said Sunday. "I can holler pretty well, and I think that's part of the job description I would give to lieutenant governor."

Quinn, 52, a self-styled reformer, has lost bids for a variety of statewide offices since leaving the treasurer's office in 1995. This is his second consecutive try for lieutenant governor, having lost the nomination in 1998.

Topinka, 57, who had been lobbied for a variety of posts on the Republican ballot, announced she would seek re-election as treasurer. She is the lone Republican to announce for the office.

"I'm flattered that people have considered me for any number of offices," she said. "But really, outside of the office of governor, I don't think there's any other office in the state of Illinois that actually impacts on the daily lives of people as much as our state treasurer's office has done."

At a Northwest Side banquet hall, Dagher, 36, announced he was joining the Democratic race for the 5th Congressional District to succeed Blagojevich.

Candidates for the nomination include another former Clinton aide, Rahm Emanuel, and former state Rep. Nancy Kaszak.

Dagher said he favors reconfiguration of runways on the property lines of O'Hare International Airport. Of the deal reached by Gov. George Ryan and Mayor Richard Daley, he said, "I don't see anything in that proposal that would make things safer now."